Porvoo’s Skaftkärri urban design & regeneration project is the forty-two article on projects from practice. Porvoo’s Skaftkärri is a district located on the east side of the capital of Finland Helsinki distance 50 km away. The location is of former scattered urban development of low-density housing and homes in a dense forest environment. The urban design and development are planned and intended to create a new energy-efficient district that is being built in Porvoo’s Skaftkärri, where approximately 6,000 residents will be located. The entire district is planned and built so that the houses, living environment, traffic arrangements, and services operate as energy-efficiently as possible. The existing development is of low density not giving proper revenue to the land uses and values. Land uses were replanned to generate the proper revenue for the developers and owners of the area taking advantage of the existing infrastructure, location, and new urban densities. The urban design and regeneration include two plots 480 and 481 plots. Figure 1 shows the two plots from Google Maps. Figure two is plot 480 of the urban design and regeneration project.
The main cause or the drive to initiate the urban design and regeneration of this area is its significant agricultural location and dense forest surroundings. People in this area, as per the planning investigation, are full trees dense which reports show that people in the area showed fear of the environment surrounding them. The area is of small homes scattered in the area of one story and small business. The area planning considered making a feasible urban design and regeneration of increasing density and making the land of higher profit. As per the planning document and advisory team, the purpose is to prepare a site plan for an energy-efficient small house settlement in the area.
The urban design and regeneration included various documents since the approval for the two plots in 2010 and 2012. The building guidelines include various chapters like passive cooling and heating, building materials and structure, placement of buildings, building architecture and its components, external space including yards and fences, public space, and parks. Figure 3 is the planning, urban design, and regeneration plan for the 480-481 plots of the development.
The urban design and regeneration guidelines have defined several criteria for plots and homes. The homes are to be designed as two-story buildings mainly of available material which is wood, the principal of sustainability, and the house’s external walls to be of brick or wood covered with panels. All colors are identified by the guidelines for example yellow and black façade colors. The roofs should be of gable roof type with steep slopes and clay cladding. Solar panels are allowed to be used by owners in the proper location rooftop or other specified locations as per the guidelines. See Figure 4, the sample house of the urban design project.
The plots on the hillside are to take the shape of the land and to be staggered as per the urban design guidelines. Every plot has a different layout depending on the plot shape and following the urban design guidelines of the urban design densities. The guidelines have defined three types of plots considering various design criteria and factors. Two of the plots are rectangular and one plot is square. Considering the orientation to road entry and car park whether inside the plot or outside the plot. Ventilation is highly considered in designing the layouts as the house footprint is in the middle of the plot. And due to this location daylight is accessible from all sides to all internal spaces. Views are provided from all sides of the landscape in the plot on the parameters of the plot. Various criteria for sustainable development were applied in the layout design. External spaces within the plot are designed for daily use and for recreation such as barbeque. See Figure 5, for the three layouts of the house design.
Landscape design and architecture within the urban design guidelines have various detailed design specs for plots. For example, adjacent plots are not permitted to build any type of fence but only metal fences with shrubs and greenery in coordination with the neighbor and his approval. The front side fence to be of rock material and can be covered with greenery. each fence on the plot and the boundaries has a specific height like the front fence height to be 110cm. See Figure 6, for the types of fencing in some of the plots of the development.
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